The loudest explosion in history struck 130 years ago when Krakatoa erupted. On 26 August 1883 the volcano blew up and the following day collapsed in four gigantic explosions that were heard 3,000 miles away, with shockwaves registering on barometers around the world. And the energy of those eruptions was estimated to be 10,000 times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Thousands of people were killed in the surrounding area from the eruptions, but the biggest death toll was from vast tsunamis unleashed by the volcano's collapse. All told, an estimated 36,000 people were killed, although recent figures calculate over 100,000 died.

As sulphur dioxide and dust shot 50 miles high into the stratosphere, they cast a blanket around the world that cooled the Earth and plunged weather patterns into chaos. The dust also turned skies into fantastic colours, with scarlet sunsets and vivid afterglows. In London, the evening sky in November 1883 turned such an intense red that people thought there was a huge fire and called out fire engines. In Norway, blood red sunsets are thought to have inspired Edvard Munch's surreal sky in The Scream, as he wrote at the time: 'clouds like blood and tongues of fire hung above the blue-black fjord and the city.' The dusty atmosphere also made the sun and moon turn blue or green, and in 1884 another phenomenon, the Bishop's ring, appeared, as bluish-white, bronze and brown circles enveloped the sun.